Synopsis:

Removed all the unnecessary gore imposed by the studio and placed some scenes in their intended order to restore director Joe Berlinger's original vision. Also took some liberties and removed a few scenes that looked kind of cheap in my opinion. Because of the changes I had to move a few scenes around and trim down some others.

Intentions:

To restore director Joe Berlinger's original vision.

Change List:

- Inserted some title cards during the opening interviews with more info about the Blair Witch phenomenon and some background information about character Jeff. - Removed all scenes of Jeff in the mental institution. - Removed all the gore that intercuts with the opening credits. Opening music changed to Frank Sinatra's "Witchcraft". - Removed all the murder flashbacks that play thru the film. - Removed Kim staring at the horrible CGI owl at the foundation. - Removed Tristen's vision of the drowned little girl at the hospital (cheesy and not scary at all) - Removed the white flash of the Coffin Rock bodies appearing in the footage and Stephen saying bored it "reminded him of Coffin Rock". Makes no sense since they never videotaped the murders there. - Removed Stephen's vision of the little girl walking backwards on the bridge (same reason, cheesy and not scary). Instead he only hears the shriek and gets startled but when he looks again it's gone. - Removed Erica clawing Stephen's stomach. Instead the hallucination ends after she asks him about his markings. - Removed rednecks throwing rocks at the van because of that blaring rock music that completely kills the mood of the subsequent scene when Kim sees the kids walking on the road. Kept the kids but changed the soundtrack to Carter Burwell's score. - Removed Kim finding the bloody nail file in the beer bag as it gives away what happened at the store. - All the flashbacks of Jeff drooling that white liquid were replaced by other moments of him in the hospital. The drool looks tasteless and stupid in my opinion. - Removed child Erica staring at Stephen hanging from the broken bridge saying "You know who it is" as it makes no sense. - Removed the owl crashing the window as it's just out of the blue and adds nothing to the plot. - All the interrogation scenes were moved to the end of the film. - End credits music replaced by "10538 Overture" by Electric Light Orchestra. I like Poe's "Haunted" but hated all the blaring rock music that played afterwards during the shaky camera footage, and Poe's song wouldn't work in that footage, so I've chose a song that would fit the whole ending credits sequence.

Additional Notes:

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Other Sources:

Special Thanks:

The man himself, director Joe Berlinger, who saw an early stage preview of my reworked intro and said it looked close to what he did in his cut, users ghostprints and BlackHillsHermit from the BlairWitch.net forum thread, who provided me more info about Jeff's past.